James Pepper Henry

James Pepper Henry was named as the Heard Museum’s director and CEO. Pepper Henry comes to the Heard after a successful six-year tenure at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Alaska’s premier art, history and science institution. Pepper Henry formerly served as an associate director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) where, for nearly 10 years, he managed a wide variety of American Indian community-oriented programs, services, and traveling exhibitions. Pepper Henry played a pivotal role in the establishment and launch of NMAI, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., that opened to the public in 2004. Pepper Henry served as the founding director of the Kanza Museum in Kaw City, Okla.; interim curator of American Indian Art at the Portland Art Museum; gallery director at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center in Portland, Ore.; and gallery director for the Institute of Alaska Native Arts in Fairbanks, Alaska. Pepper Henry is a member of the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma and Muscogee Creek Nation. He is co-founder and president of the Kanza Ilóshka Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the perpetuation of the cultural life-ways and traditions of the Kaw people. Pepper Henry is also an active American Indian traditional dancer and is co-founder of the Kaw Nation Traditional Dance Society. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon and a recipient of the University’s prestigious Council for Minority Education Leadership Award. He is also a graduate of the Museum Leadership Institute at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California.